The Empire of Russia eBook

We have now but a long succession of conspiracies,
insurrections and battles. In one of these civil
conflicts, Ysiaslaf, at the head of a formidable force,
met another powerful army, but a few leagues from
Kief. In the hottest hour of the battle a reckless
cavalier, in the hostile ranks, perceiving Ysiaslaf
in the midst of his infantry, precipitated himself
on him, pierced him with his lance and threw him dead
upon the ground. His body was conveyed in a canoe
to Kief, and buried with much funeral pomp in the
church of Notre Dame, by the side of the beautiful
monument which had been erected to the memory of Vlademer.

Ysiaslaf expunged from the Russian code of laws the
death penalty, and substituted, in its stead, heavy
fines. The Russian historians, however, record
that it is impossible to decide whether this measure
was the dictate of humanity, or if he wished in this
way to replenish his treasury.

Vsevolod succeeded to the throne of his brother Ysiaslaf
in the year 1078. The children of Ysiaslaf had
provinces assigned them in appanage. Vsevolod
was a lover of peace, and yet devastation and carnage
were spread everywhere before his eyes. Every
province in the empire was torn by civil strife.
Hundreds of nobles and princes were inflamed with
the ambition for supremacy, and with the sword alone
could the path be cut to renown. The wages offered
the soldiers, on all sides, was pillage. Cities
were everywhere sacked and burned, and the realm was
crimsoned with blood. Civil war is necessarily
followed by the woes of famine, which woes are ever
followed by the pestilence. The plague swept
the kingdom with terrific violence, and whole provinces
were depopulated. In the city of Kief alone, seven
thousand perished in the course of ten weeks.
Universal terror, and superstitious fear spread through
the nation. An earthquake indicated that the
world itself was trembling in alarm; an enormous serpent
was reported to have been seen falling from heaven;
invisible and malignant spirits were riding by day
and by night through the streets of the cities, wounding
the citizens with blows which, though unseen, were
heavy and murderous, and by which blows many were slain.
All hearts sank in gloom and fear. Barbarian
hordes ravaged both banks of the Dnieper, committing
towns and villages to the flames, and killing such
of the inhabitants as they did not wish to carry away
as captives.

Vsevolod, an amiable man of but very little force
of character, was crushed by the calamities which
were overwhelming his country. Not an hour of
tranquillity could he enjoy. It was the ambition
of his nephews, ambitious, energetic, unprincipled
princes, struggling for the supremacy, which was mainly
the cause of all these disasters.